Vehicles and other powered units may include cooling systems with radiators, namely, a cooling fluid (e.g., liquid)-to-air heat exchanger for transferring thermal energy from the cooling fluid to ambient (external to the powered unit). Such cooling systems may be used, for example, for cooling vehicle engines, power electronics, or the like.
In some instances, a radiator fan assembly is operably disposed in association with a radiator, to generate a flow of air across and/or through the radiator, to promote a desired degree of cooling. The radiator fan assembly may include a central hub, plural fan blades attached to the hub, and a drive mechanism (e.g., electrical motor, or gear mechanism coupled to a mechanical engine output) for rotating the hub and thereby the fan blades. The fan blades may be welded to the hub. In such a case, if one of the blades wholly or partially detaches from the hub due to some sort of fault mechanism (e.g., repeated mechanical strain over time), the entirety of the fan assembly must be removed for servicing. Due to the need for removal of the old blade remnants and re-welding on of a new blade, this can be expensive and time consuming, resulting in significant system downtime.